Tuesday, September 4, 2007

If you allow Firefox to store your passwords you might be worried about the recent security holes found in the password manager. The solution to these problems is to use the Secure Login extension to prevent Firefox from automatically filling in password fields, but at the same time giving you the automation that saves you time. In fact, using the hotkey means that this method is probably even quicker.

The regular Firefox password manager will automatically fill in the password fields for you, which gives malicious sites and hackers the chance to use javascript to read the password. Granted, this isn't a common occurrence, but it's still wise to be wary.

Using the Secure Login extension, you'll see these gold bars around the login credentials instead, but it won't fill in the fields automatically.

Here's where the magic happens…. just click the Secure Login button and the form will be filled and automatically submitted.

You can also use the keyboard shortcut Alt+N (customizable) to login even faster.

The button isn't automatically added to your toolbar after installing the extension, but it's easy to add: just right-click over the back/forward buttons and choose Customize Toolbar. You'll find the Secure Login button in the list.

The preferences have a lot of other options as well, like not automatically submitting the form when you click the button if you don't like that behavior. You can even customize the highlight color around the login elements.